After spending much of the 2018/19 season in the wilderness and failing to qualify for Europe, Rapid were under major pressure to perform this time around.
Didi Kuhbauer managed to keep his job at the end of the previous season with the club seeing his potential, but it was quite clear that he had to deliver results in order to keep his job.
And deliver he did - Rapid showed far more consistency than they did at any point in the previous campaign. Their home form did not pick up until rather late in the campaign, but their away form was consistently excellent and prevented them from having any major crisis periods over the course of the campaign.
They also had a memorable Austrian Cup exit, as they managed to take Salzburg to extra time in a game they finished with nine men, only for a 120th-minute goal to eliminate them.
They had to cope with injury issues late in the campaign, especially in defence, but Kuhbauer still had enough men available to name strong sides. A decent spell of form in the Championship Group saw the Green-Whites pip Wolfsberger and LASK to second.
All in all, a good season for the Green-Whites, but given how good Salzburg are, there are major doubts regarding whether they can improve on this.
